Oklahoma Early Enrollees: Why Makari Vickers is Perfect for OU's Transition to the SEC

Coming up in Tallahassee, Vickers was recruited by all the usual SEC powers, but he decided he wanted to help Brent Venables and Jay Valai change the culture at OU.

John E. Hoover | Jan 28, 2023

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Oklahoma Sooners

Editor’s Note: This is Part 10 of a 14-part series on Oklahoma’s early enrollees in the 2023 recruiting class.

Many times, graduating high school early and launching one’s college football career pays off. Many times, it doesn’t.

While early enrollees are navigating new realms of pain and commitment, a lot of their friends are back home — playing basketball, running track or just hanging out and taking full advantage of the affliction known as “senioritis.”

In Oklahoma’s case, 14 newcomers have chosen to make that sudden transition from boys to men. Jerry Schmidt’s winter workouts might seem impossible at first, and then the summer grind is even harder. In between, the coaching staff takes over, and spring football practice puts them ahead of their summer counterparts.

In this series, AllSooners examines each of the 14 newcomers and projects their impact on Brent Venables’ football team in 2023.

— — — —

Brent Venables helped build Clemson into a college football machine feared throughout the South. Jay Valai last coached at Alabama. Makari Vickers grew up in Tallahassee.

And soon, Oklahoma will be in the Southeastern Conference.

None of that is coincidence.

Vickers is a byproduct of OU’s renewed efforts to fortify the program with talent from the region so the Sooners can compete with teams from the region.

Vickers, a multifaceted defensive back from the Tallahassee suburb of Quincy, is a 4-star prospect who wears the his SEC footprint on his sleeve. He was offered by Alabama in November of his sophomore season, 2020.

LSU, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina had offered him prior to the Crimson Tide. He soon got an offer from hometown Florida State, but within a few months, Arkansas, Texas A&M and Florida had offered.

DB Makari Vickers

6-1, 195
Tallahassee, FL
247 Sports: 4-star, No. 75 overall, No. 6 Safety
Rivals: 4-star, No. 81 overall, No. 10 Cornerback
On3: 4-star, No. 118 overall, No. 8 Safety
ESPN: 4-star, No. 82 overall, No. 9 Cornerback
Background: Vickers played for three high schools during his varsity career and finished with 11 total touchdowns (eight receiving, one rushing, two punt returns). The versatile athlete compiled 781 yards receiving and 145 yards rushing, including a senior year when he caught 21 passes for 426 yards and ran the football 12 times for 90 yards. Vickers’ future is on defense, however, where he made 69 tackles as a junior at St. John Paul II and 63 as a senior at Robert F. Monroe. The hard-hitting Vickers also finished with five career interceptions, two fumbles forced and one fumble recovery.
2023 Projection: Vickers plays a physical brand of football. That’ll help him transition quickly as he tries to break into the rotation this spring. A winter in the OU weight room will help, but his first order of business will be to study and learn the concepts of Brent Venables’ defense. If he can pull that off and get some meaningful reps this spring, that should translate to playing time next fall. Will that be at corner, where Woodi Washington and Jaden Davis are scheduled to return? Or at safety, where Billy Bowman and Key Lawrence are expected back? Maybe he’ll slide into nickel, where Justin Harrington and others are trying to lock down the cheetah position. The best way for young players to get on the field is on special teams, so Vickers’ versatility and physicality will be an asset.

Oklahoma offered last January, just a couple weeks after Texas. The Sooners had a secret weapon.

“I was locked in with Coach (Jay) Valai when he was at Alabama,” Vickers told AllSooners. “And I've always heard that Oklahoma was one of the most winningest programs in all of college football. So when Coach Valai went up there — and I know his defensive mind, along with Coach Venables — I knew that they would change the defensive culture up there at Oklahoma.”

Vickers described the moment he met Venables — a moment that changed his life — on a video call with Valai.

Makari Vickers / Photo via Makari Vickers' Twitter

“So he texts me off his new number and told me to call him,” Vickers said, “and so I FaceTimed him and he was actually in the meeting room with Coach Venables. That was the first time I spoke to Coach Venables was the day he offered me. … I got a chance to chop it up with Coach Venables; Coach Valai ended up getting the phone back, he was telling me how excited he was for me when he was at Bama, but now he's over here and … he gets to start over with a new system and a lot of new guys. He was definitely excited. He extended the offer.”

Vickers is on campus now and will begin his college football career in the Big 12 Conference. He, for one, can’t wait to someday play in the SEC.

“Yeah, it’s definitely a cherry on top,” Vickers said. “Because you know what they say about the SEC: a lot of the faster, talented guys come from the SEC. So with us moving to the SEC, that definitely is gonna give me a challenge each and every game I play a team that's from that conference. So it's definitely a cherry on top.”

Oklahoma’s 2023 early enrollees

Vickers played in the All-American Bowl in San Antonio earlier this month, but not before enjoying the Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando — most of it, anyway. His hometown Seminoles eked out a 35-32 victory over his future Sooner teammates in a game where both teams seemed to come away feeling good about themselves.

“At one point in recruiting, I was (on FSU),” Vickers said. “Being from Tallahassee, I loved Florida State growing up. But being from Tallahassee, there was only so much they could show me. So it was kind of one of those things where I loved it, but I knew I had to get away because it wasn't in my best interests.”

At 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds, Vickers is a big, physical defensive back. He told AllSooners he’s had more training as a safety, but he would prefer to start out at corner, where he can use his size and strength to disrupt receivers off the line.

He’ll be even bigger and stronger when training camp starts in August thanks to the work he’s putting in now with strength coach Jerry Schmidt and his staff — as well as the work he began last month at home.

“As soon as the (high school) season ended, I got right back on the grind,” Vickers said. “Because there’s a lot of talk about those Schmidty workouts. So I’ve been trying to just work out and get my body and my mind prepared for getting ready for the next — for college. Because everything is gonna be 10 times stronger, 10 times faster, to do a lot more thinking with less time. So definitely hopped back on the grind as soon as the season ended, just to get myself prepared for that.”

That’s the SEC mindset that Venables and the OU staff are trying to build, a mindset that projects well to the recruits — especially the ones from SEC country.

“At Oklahoma, with the new staff, everybody's genuine,” Vickers said. “So all the love you feel up there is real. All the fan love that you feel up there is real. All the love that you get from everybody on campus is up there is real, you know, nothing's fake. Everything is genuine and authentic.”

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Published Jan 28, 2023

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.